Stroke of Midnight
by Copycat
Summary: Lucy decides that she and Sue need to throw a New Year’s Eve party. Pure fluff.


TITLE: Stroke Of Midnight  
AUTHOR: Copycat  
E-MAIL: PG-13, just to be safe  
CLASSIFICATION: Romance (Jack/Sue)  
SPOILERS: Anything in season 2 is fair game.  
SUMMARY: Lucy decides that she and Sue need to throw a New Year's Eve party. Pure fluff.  
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Never were, never will be. But I'd pay good money for Jack in an auction.  
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, but please tell.  
NOTES: It just occurred to me today that I never put this up on A New Year's Eve fic from last year.

Italics denote ASL.

I just could not get Jack to behave the way I wanted him to—so in the end I had to dare him. Sue was very sweet about it, though, and pretended not to have noticed…

xxxxxx

"You know what we need?" Lucy asked Sue as she dumped the leftover Chinese takeout in the bin.

Sue smiled at her friend's sudden burst of enthusiasm. "If you say food, I'll hurt you. I'm never eating again."

"No, no," Lucy assured her. "We need a party. A New Year's Eve party."

Sue frowned. "A New Year's Eve party. But New Year's Eve is the day after tomorrow. We will never be able to arrange a party in two days."

"Of course we will." Lucy smiled. "It'll be perfect. We'll invite all our friends—maybe even Myles in the spirit of the season—and maybe," she grinned "just maybe, at midnight, Jack will…" she trailed off with a gesture that was definitely not part of the ASL vocabulary. "I think I'll leave the mistletoe up."

Sue blushed but said determinedly, "Please, Lucy, I've told you a million times there's nothing going on between me and Jack."

"Just because there's nothing going on that doesn't mean you don't want there to be something going on. It certainly doesn't mean that he doesn't," Lucy argued, equally determined.

Sue sighed in defeat. "Okay. Let's have a party. But you will not turn this into a matchmaking scheme. In fact, that should be your New Year's resolution: no more matchmaking."

Lucy shrugged but felt it would be wise not to tell Sue that if the two of them would just get on with it already she wouldn't have to.

Jack looked up from his paperwork when he saw Sue approaching his desk. _What's up?_

_Lucy and I are having a New Year's Eve party. Would you like to come?_

Jack frowned. "A 'what'?"

Sue repeated the signs. "New Year's Eve party," she explained. "If you don't have any other plans, that is, I mean I know it is a little late to invite people to a New Year's Eve party on the day before New Year's Eve, but Lucy thought that you, that is we thought maybe, but…" she blushed as she realized just how much she was babbling. She really needed to learn not to be affected by Lucy's comments about kissing Jack. Especially while she was talking to Jack.

Jack grinned although he had absolutely no clue what had Sue so flustered. "Are you asking me to be your date to the party?" he teased.

Sue's face went an even darker shade of red, but then she looked down at her trusty companion. "No, I've already agreed to go with Levi. He has much better manners. You'll have to find someone else."

Jack nodded, looking serious. "Well, maybe I can swing by a bar on my way and pick someone up."

Sue shook her head in exasperation but did not take the dig. "So you'll come? You don't have plans?"

Jack looked at her slightly hopeful face and decided that whatever plans he had made for tomorrow night, and he couldn't really remember what they were just now, he would much rather be with Sue. Oh, and everyone else at the party, of course. "I would love to come. And I don't have any plans that can't be changed," he told her earnestly, smiling.

She smiled back happily and his eyes shifted first to one side and then the other as he tried to avoid eye contact. For reasons he saw no need to go into, having Sue look at him like that always made him feel a little bit like he was back in High School trying to ask a girl to the prom.

"The party starts at eight," she told him and went back to her desk.

Jack smiled at the sight of Lucy, dressed in a sparkly red dress and a blue party hat, as she opened the door. "Very festive," he commented as he took off his coat.

"You too," she told him, grinning at his New Year's Eve tie with fireworks printed on it, a gag gift from Bobby. He followed her into the living room area and looked around at all the people who were already there. It was really very impressive the number of people they had been able to round up on such short notice.

"She's over there," Lucy pointed to the opposite corner of the room, grinning with glee.

"What? I wasn't…" Jack gave up; trying to argue with Lucy would be pointless.

"I left the mistletoe up especially for you," she told him, pointing back to the arch between the hallway and the living room.

"That's not very subtle," he told her, acting as if he did not know what she really meant. "I thought women were supposed to play hard to get. Don't get me wrong," he assured her with a grin, "I like the take charge attitude."

Lucy shook her head. "I'll be sure to pass that on," she promised and walked away.

Across the room Sue had noticed his arrival and when he looked at her she waved, so he walked over to her.

_This is Jack_, Sue signed to her friend when he came to stand next to her. "Jack, this is my friend Carrie," she then told Jack, signing as she spoke.

Jack smiled and nodded in greeting. Carrie smiled back warmly and signed to Sue. _You're right. He's really cute._

Jack was almost as embarrassed as Sue by the remark and looked down, shuffling his feet, as he tried to regain his composure. When he looked up a moment later he could not help but grin at the sight of Sue's bright red face. "What, uh, what did that mean?" he asked after clearing his throat, feigning ignorance as he had done before when Helga referred to the he and Sue as 'a nice couple.' Partly because it saved him from having to respond and partly because he just liked to hear Sue say it.

"She said she likes your tie," Sue deadpanned.

Jack laughed out loud. "She did not say that," he protested.

"She did," Sue nodded vigorously.

Jack shook his head, still grinning widely. "No, she said you think I'm cute."

"Actually," she corrected him, her jaw set, "she said she thinks you're cute."

Carrie shrugged, grinning.

"But she was agreeing with you. So you must have told her that you think I'm cute."

"That was a long time ago," Sue told him in a last ditch effort to save face.

"So you once thought I was cute, but you don't anymore?" he asked her, pretending to be hurt.

"I like your tie, though," she assured him. That's not lying, it's just evading, she told herself.

"Right," he sighed, realizing that the chance to embarrass her further had passed.

_It is a nice tie_, Carrie agreed, still grinning widely at their antics.

Jack was standing alone by the window, looking out at the lights of the city.

"Hey," he said when Sue walked up to him. "Great party."

She smiled. _Thank you_. "But why are you standing over here, all alone?"

He shrugged. "Myles was giving us all a lecture on true New Year's Eve traditions."

She nodded in complete understanding of his need to get away.

They stood for a while in comfortable silence, each casting secret glances at the other.

"Y'know," he said, suddenly turning to look directly at her. "I don't think I've told you how great you look tonight." Then, a little embarrassed by what he had just said, his eyes shifted to her dark purple sequined dress, hugging her figure in all the right places, as he sought desperately for something else to say but his mind was blank.

"Thank you," she replied, blushing slightly under the intensity of his gaze.

"TEN!" Everybody yelled suddenly.

He looked around at all the people counting down the seconds until midnight and then back at Sue. In less than ten seconds they would most likely be surrounded by people who were kissing each other and he found that a little unnerving. If he had been with anyone other than Sue he would have thought nothing of leaning in for a little New Year's kiss, but he knew there was no just casually kissing Sue. He had learned the hard way, or actually the very pleasant way, when they had gone undercover at Callahan & Merced that kissing her wreaked havoc on both his mind and his feelings.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bobby giving him a thumbs up with the arm he had draped loosely over Darcy's shoulders. No doubt the Aussie was more than a little tipsy.

"FIVE!" The crowd screamed.

Jack winced at the noise and Sue looked at him questioningly. "They're loud," he explained.

Sue nodded and smiled. "They look loud, too," she told him.

"ONE!"

_Happy New Year_, Sue signed, not really sure what to do with herself. She had done her best to forget Lucy's comments, and had even stayed far away from the mistletoe all night, but at this moment in time all she could think of was the possibility that Jack might kiss her.

_Happy New Year_. Jack cleared his throat and felt more awkward than he thought he had any reason to as he looked at people hugging and kissing around him. Looking back at Sue he found her smiling at him, clearly expecting him to say or do something—but what he had no idea.

He cleared his throat once again and shook his head looking into her eyes, sparkling with thinly veiled amusement. "What?"

She grinned and shook her head but said nothing, taking some pleasure in his discomfort.

A little unnerved by how affected he was by this situation—or his thoughts about the situation—and how completely unaffected Sue appeared to be, he decided now was the time to turn the tables. Taking a step closer he looked her straight in the eye with every intention of calling her bluff.

Any second now, surely Sue would look away, blushing with embarrassment, and he could make a joke about the situation and they'd be home free. Another potentially awkward moment over.

But as he moved closer Sue kept looking into his eyes, and while her expression had changed from amused to surprised, she made no moves to retreat.

The fact that this could happen had not occurred to Jack at all, and he had no back-up plan prepared. Freezing, his face just inches from hers, he realized he did not want one. He would gladly deal with the awkwardness and emotional turmoil that would inevitably follow; at this moment in time all he wanted was to feel her lips against his.

"It is tradition," he told her, smiling, giving her a chance to tell him that this was one particular tradition she felt no desire to follow.

"You can't argue with tradition," she replied, her voice a little shaky and her eyes never leaving his lips.

Ever so slowly, savoring every moment, he leaned in and softly touched his lips on hers. Not entirely sure he could trust himself with what he was doing Jack pulled back after only a brief second, but as he moved, Sue followed. Encouraged by her reluctance to end the kiss he stepped forward bringing his body flush against hers, their lips never parting.

Her hands moved around his neck holding his head level, and he responded by running his hands up her back, one of them remaining there to pull her closer and the other getting entangled in her hair as he leaned into her, deepening the kiss.

That night, at Callahan & Merced, the case and the knowledge that they were about to be caught had always stayed at the back of his mind, even as he had felt common sense go out the window, but now the only thing on his mind was the feeling of Sue's body pressed against him and her lips moving against his own.

Suddenly aware of the sound of Bobby hooting somewhere in the distance, Jack pulled back and gradually became aware of his surroundings.

Sue whimpered her protest when his lips left hers before she, too, opened her eyes. Realizing where she was and that everyone was staring at them she flushed an even deeper red than she already had from the kiss. She looked at Jack, who seemed suitably embarrassed and confused but who was also smiling lopsidedly at her as if to say 'oh, well.'

Bobby shook his head and grinned widely. "You won't get us to believe that that wasn't making out, Sparky."

THE END


End file.
